'Did I make you proud?': Biden team blasts out post-debate fundraising plea hours before debate kicks off
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s staff got a little trigger happy on Wednesday, prematurely sending out a fundraising email asking for feedback on his performance in the night’s debate, asking in the subject line: “Did I make you proud?”
The email went out around 3 p.m., a good six hours before the debate is set to kick off and at least eight hours before it’s expected to end.
“I’m leaving the fifth Democratic debate now,” the fundraising plea begins. “I hope I made you proud out there, and I hope I made it clear to the world why our campaign is so important.”
Biden’s debate performances thus far have not been pivotal moments for him, and the only points at which other candidates have overtaken him came in the months since primary debates began. But Wednesday’s contest will be one of the first debates since Biden has lost his clear frontrunner status, and could allow him some breathing room as his other rivals face the glare of the spotlight.
The email appears to preview an attack line Biden will use against Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “We need more than plans,” the plea declares, a clear shot at one of the vice president’s chief rivals and her trove of policy plans.
The email also alludes to the fluid nature of the primary field, which, after some winnowing, stands to potentially become more bloated even two months before the Iowa caucuses. In recent months, the top competitors in the race have constantly shuffled, with Biden often on the losing end of the stick. “The primary is winding down,” the email concludes, acknowledging, “I know it may not seem like it with such a crowded stage, but it is.”
The campaign sent a follow-up email about an hour later apologizing for the gaffe.
“Oops,” the subject line read. “You might have just gotten an email from Joe about just getting off of the debate stage. That’s our bad.”
“We know Joe is going to make us proud tonight. We were just so excited for it that we accidentally hit send too soon,” the email goes on, before spinning the mistake into another solicitation, asking for donations “right now so we can give Joe the good news before he hits the stage.”
